Candyland

At this stage, Walt Disney had a monopoly on three-strip Technicolor for cartoons. As a result, when Walter Lantz wanted to make a color cartoon, he made do with the two-strip variety: bright reds and bright blues, which he used in their pure, bright forms -- pretty good for decorating a candy cane, but lacking any subtlety whatsoever.

That lack of subtlety pretty much defines this cartoon about a small boy who dreams about his trip with his dog to Candyland, where a work force of tiny, rotund men make sweets. A couple of the sequences, like the one about popcorn balls, shows a certain amount of charm and good humor, but mostly it is too sweet for my taste. The saccharine song about Candyland, sang as a soprano chorale, reinforces the result.

The high cost of even two-strip Technicolor meant this one was kept in circulation and no doubt the bright colors kept it popular for several years for the Saturday morning matinée show at the local theaters, but as a whole, it is a way below average cartoon for Lantz in a period when he was struggling a bit -- as, indeed, every cartoon producer seems to have been except for Disney.

. . . than for what it leaves in. It is obvious that the nefarious Sandman abducts the young toddler and spirits him away to Om Paw Loop Paw Land, as the tyke towers over all the participants of the candy makers' parade. Unfortunately, this version of the CANDY-LAND story omits any sight of Chocolate River. Even worse, Blueberry Girl is never glimpsed here, though her ballooning body was the most hilarious aspect of the later rendition of this tale. Instead, CANDY-LAND viewers are "treated" to the horrible sight of the babe's white dog scarfing down three big slabs of chocolate fudge off the assembly line. This is not only grossly unsanitary, but also constitutes a death sentence for the hapless doomed mutt!